On Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Sea Fog Occurrence over the Northern Atlantic from 1909 to 2008

In this paper, the International Comprehensive Ocean and Atmosphere Data Set （ICOADS） is utilized to investigate the horizontal distribution of sea fog occurrence frequency over the Northern Atlantic as well as the meteorological and oceanic condi- tions for sea fog formation. Sea fog over the Northern Atlantic mainly occurs over middle and high latitudes. Sea fog occurrence frequency over the western region of the Northern Atlantic is higher than that over the eastern region. The season for sea fog occur- rence over the Northern Atlantic is generally from April to August. When sea fogs occur, the prevailing wind direction in the study area is from southerly to southwesterly and the favorable wind speed is around 8 m s-1, It is most favorable for the formation of sea fogs when sea surface temperature （SST） is 5℃ to 15℃. When SST is higher than 25℃, it is difficult for the air to get saturated, and there is almost no report of sea fog. When sea fogs form, the difference between sea surface temperature and air temperature is mainly -1 to 3℃, and the difference of 0℃ to 2℃ is the most favorable conditions for fog formation. There are two types of sea fogs prevailing in this region： advection cooling fog and advection evaporating fog.